The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has started a trial of American journalists, Laura Ling and Seung-eun Lee. They are accused of illegally intruding into its territory with "hostile intent".

The journalists, Seung-eun Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, were detained before dawn on March the 17th along the frozen Tumen River, which marks the border with China.

They were reporting for former vice-president Al Gore's "Current TV" in California. The two journalists had been visited by Sweden's ambassador to the DPRK, on behalf of Washington, which has no diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

(CCTV June 5, 2009)